The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03 eBook

ACT V

SCENE I

Butler’s Chamber.

BUTLER and MAJOR GERALDIN

BUTLER.

Find me twelve strong dragoons, arm them with pikes,
For there must be no firing—­
Conceal them somewhere near the banquet-room,
And soon as the dessert is served up, rush all in
And cry—­“Who is loyal to the Emperor!”
I will overturn the table—­while you attack
Illo and Terzky and dispatch them both.
The castle-palace is well barr’d and guarded,
That no intelligence of this proceeding
May make its way to the Duke. Go instantly;
Have you yet sent for Captain Devereux
And the Macdonald?—­

GERALDIN.

They’ll
be here anon.

[Exit
GERALDIN.]

BUTLER.

Here’s no room for delay. The citizens
Declare for him, a dizzy drunken spirit
Possesses the whole town. They see in the Duke
A Prince of peace, a founder of new ages
And golden times. Arms too have been given out
By the town-council, and a hundred citizens
Have volunteered themselves to stand on guard.
Dispatch! then, be the word; for enemies
Threaten us from without and from within.

SCENE II

BUTLER, CAPTAIN DEVEREUX, and MACDONALD

MACDON.

Here we are, General.

DEVEREUX.

What’s to
be the watchword?

BUTLER.

Long live the Emperor!

BOTH (recoiling).

How?

BUTLER.

Live the House
of Austria.

DEVEREUX.

Have we not sworn fidelity to Friedland?

MACDON.

Have we not march’d to this place to protect
him?

BUTLER.

Protect a traitor, and his country’s enemy?

DEVEREUX.

Why, yes! in his name you administer’d
Our oath.

MACDONALD.

And follow’d him
yourself to Egra.

BUTLER.

I did it the more surely to destroy him.

DEVEREUX.

So then!

MACDONALD.

An alter’d case!

BUTLER (to DEVEREUX).

Thou wretched man,
So easily leavest thou thy oath and colors?

DEVEREUX.

The devil!—­I but follow’d your example,
If you could prove a villain, why not we?

MACDON.

We’ve nought to do with thinking—­that’s
your business.
You are our General, and give out the orders;
We follow you, though the track lead to hell.